Evaluation of signalment, clinical, and laboratory variables as prognostic indicators in dogs with acute abdominal syndrome

Abstract:
The aim of the study was to identify predictors of mortality and to propose a new severity scoring system in dogs with acute abdominal syndrome. A retrospective study was carried out on 58 dogs presented with acute abdominal syndrome with American Society of Anesthesiologists grades III-IV and treated surgically by exploratory laparotomy. Medical records were reviewed and information regarding dog signalment, history, clinical, and laboratory data; surgical findings; and outcome was collected. Multiple easily measurable variables were found to be mortality predictors in dogs with acute abdominal syndrome, but the most relevant were the presence of neoplastic process, organ rupture, abdominal distention, and solid organ involvement. Based on the acute abdomen scoring system, animals that received 14 points had a 50% chance of survival, with a sensitivity of 90.48%, specificity of 97.3%, and positive and negative predictive values of 95% and 94.7%, respectively, at this cut-point. According to the receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis, this scoring system classified 94.83% of the cases correctly with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0.965 (P = 0.0001). The presented severity scoring system could reliably assess the severity and probability of death in dogs with acute abdomen and could be used in small animal clinical practice.